I managed to get my hands on a crusty, kinda nasty old L43S ( to go along with my fully fettled L43P). As you can see, I got it going tonight, but I have hours of work on it. It's overburning the mantles so I suspect that it either has crap in the air tube still (I lye bombed it though) or the generator gas tip is worn-- it appears to have the OG Preway generator. I have a 220 tip I can put on it. L43P on the left, L43S on the right. Anyway, the L43P (Prentiss Wabers branded) and the L43S (Montgomery ward? It doesn't say that or Preway on it. No branding actually) have differences. First off, is the fount on the P is steel, and the S is brass. Another difference is on the P, the nut for the tip cleaner comes through the collar. On the S just the wire comes through. The lighting hole on the S is larger than on the P and is on the opposite side. Also, the plate riveted to the collar is on the opposite side as well. I still have work to do on this L43S but it does run! The pump pip doesn't leak either! There's epoxy under the filler bung... I scraped some off and there doesn't appear to be a crack, so I'm not sure what the deal is. Ope! It just blew the mantles out! I'd better let it cool and swap out the generator. I do need a new generator nut for it because this one cracked when I tightened it. It's holding fine but I bet it only has a couple of tightenings left in it. One from a 220 did not fit. Only other spares I have are for a 639 and one for a Northstar-- both are too big. One last tidbit is the scuzzy S came with the original mica globe, and all the mica is intact except the piece in the sliding door. It's hanging out int The Bucket now (Evaporust) to clean it up. Off to continue fettling...
Here's a thread I did a few years ago that includes some detailed info on the PW works. The example is a L13 but the guts are the same on the 43s except the valve shaft is steel. I think the brass shafts were only on the very early models. Aladdin PL-1,Preway L-13 and Coleman 220 comparison - The Coleman Collectors Forum
